Abstract

Objective: decent family planning ability has profound effects on the mortality and morbidity of the neonate, infant and mother, and it has significant influences on well-being of the society. Professional skills of family planning personnel must include up-to-date and advanced scientific knowledge by which the clients’ needs will be met. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on the knowledge and performance of the family planning staff. Methods: Twenty–eight family planning staff randomly selected from several family planning clinics in Shiraz-Iran were evaluated in this study. They were enrolled in either study or control groups. Considering multiple methods of active learning, new updates on family planning were taught to the participants in the study group. Using questionnaires and checklists, the knowledge and performance of participants in the two groups were evaluated in three stages. Statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS version 11.5 for windows. Results: A significant change was seen in the family planning knowledge and performance of study group one week after the intervention (p=0.001, within group). The increase in the knowledge level of the participants in the study group was 16.6% (one week later) (p<0.05 within group) and 67.2% (8 weeks after intervention) (p<0.05 within group). The positive change in the performance of the participants in the study group was 18.3% (one week later) (p<0.05 within group) and 23.3% (8 weeks after education) (p<0.05 within group). The control group did not show any significant changes in either knowledge or performance (p>0.05 within group). Conclusion: Educational intervention through active learning methods leads to improvement of the knowledge and performance of the family planning staff.